The Batman is directed and co-written by Matt Reeves and stars Robert Pattinson as Bruce Wayne/Batman as well as Zoe Kravitz as Selina Kyle/Catwoman, Andy Serkis as Alfred, Jeffrey Wright as Commissioner Gordon and Paul Dano as the Riddler who seeks to destroy Gotham City by uncovering a deep dark secret regarding the rot that lies at the heart of the City, a rot that a newly minted Batman will have to confront and stop even if that mystery lies at the heart of his family name.
The Batman was the main comic book I’ve been anticipating this year and that is mainly down to the excellent previews for the film which looked great on the big cinema screen as well but when I read about the films 3 hour runtime I began to get very nervous and it did dwindle my anticipation a little mainly because I began to feel that half of the film would be this movie and the other half would just be setup for all the future movies and streaming shows and I am getting pretty tired of that personally speaking.
Plus this movie has some stiff competition to overcome for me in terms of the 1989 Batman film with Jack Nicholson and Michael Keaton as well as 2005’s Batman Begins and 2008’s The Dark Knight which were directed by Christopher Nolan and starred Christian Bale as Batman but could this new Batman movie rise to the fire of that stiff competition or just be a Baaaabaaay as I give it another Kiss from a Rose on the Grave Oooooooo.
Well this new Batman movie is neither a Kiss from a Rose on the Grave but nor does it go Face to Face with the best Batman movies, this one for me is very much middle of the road but before I delve more into those issues I want to write more about the positives.
Firstly I think Pattinson is pretty good as Batman but I don’t think he was as good as Michael Keaton or Ben Affleck were when they played Batman for while I think Pattinson is a good Batman and is happy to let the Batsuit do most of the talking in those scenes (Pattinson is said to have been reluctant to bulk up for the role and I can understand why now seeing him in the suit) I don’t think he was given enough scenes to establish both his Bruce Wayne and his relationship with Alfred which is a cornerstone relationship of the Batman stories.
And this leads me into Serkis as Alfred and like Pattinson as Bruce Wayne he sadly doesn’t get enough screentime to make a dent in the role in the same way that Michael Gough, Jeremy Irons and even Michael Caine did when they played Alfred in their films but Jeffrey Wright may well be the best Gordon we’ve ever seen on film and that’s because Reeves and his co-writer Peter Craig make him integral to the story and Wright commits in a way that we never really saw the other Gordons get to do in their movies even Gary Oldman.
As for the villains well Kravitz is okay as Catwoman/Selina but I prefer Michelle Pfeiffer in the role from Batman Returns, Colin Farrell is outstanding as the Penguin and you will not recognise him in this role while Paul Dano is a good Riddler even if at times he is hard to understand when he talks under that heavy mask.
But the one weak link for me is John Turturro as Falcone, a lot of the time I just thought that not only did Turturro seem old and weak in this role but his scenes really dragged down the story for me and didn’t really hold my interest very much and at 3 hours in length his character should’ve been removed from the script and more of a focus given to the Penguin instead as I believed him more as the chief crime boss of Gotham as compared to Falcone.
And so that was the Batman and it’s a good movie but it just doesn’t compare to the best Batman films for me due to how some of the characters are used and the 3 hours length was not needed this could’ve been much better at 2 and a half hours at most, 3 out of 5.
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